Mantas and Abaddon reveal why the Venom name belongs to them alone

Three bands will now use variations of the Venom band name, according to Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and Anthony “Abaddon” Bray, the legendary co-founders of the groundbreaking black metal band Venom, who recently announced that they will commemorate the 45th anniversary of the band’s debut album, 1981’s “Welcome To Hell,” in 2026. Along with their new partnership, there is Venom Inc., led by bassist/vocalist Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan, who was a member of Venom from 1989 to 1992 and featured on the albums “Prime Evil” (1989), “Temples Of Ice” (1991), and “The Waste Lands” (1992). Additionally, there is the Conrad “Cronos” Lant-version of Venom, in which Cronos is the only member left from the band’s classic era. Speaking to The Metal Voice, this is what they stated, as transcribed by blabbermouth.net.

I’m just gonna speak the truth, the absolute truth. I’m the founder member. If there’s a co-founder, it’s Abaddon. Cronos was the last one to join. Everyone knows that. I wrote all the early material, blah, blah, blah. And at this very moment in time, the way I look at it is there isn’t a Venom out there. There’s bands out there who are playing Venom material. And that’s the honest way that I look at it. Mantas

Mantas explained why he and Abaddon decided to work together again on these programs at this time.

Myself and Abaddon, we said, ‘Look, why don’t we just do something to celebrate this fucking band?’ And that’s all we’re doing. It’s a celebration of ‘Welcome To Hell’, 45 years of that album. And this stupid fucking band has missed every major anniversary in its history. We’ve never celebrated an anniversary of this band. So I spoke to the guys at Keep It True, Oliver Weinsheimer in particular, the owner of the festival. And I said, ‘Right, here’s an idea. Why don’t we get some special guests, people who have been influenced by the band? All that kind of thing.’ And he said, ‘Great. Let’s do it.’ So that’s how it all came about. And now we’re getting offers from other places to do the same thing. So, yeah, if nobody else will do it, we’re gonna go out and celebrate this band.

But under which name?

As far as I’m concerned, there’s no fucking name to it. There’s Abaddon’s Venom logo, which is his. And underneath it, it says, ‘Mantas and Abaddon.’ And then special guests. And that’s what we’re doing.

He also explained the reasons.

I know it’s not gonna be the Pantera thing, and I know it’s not a fucking KISS reunion or anything like that, but this band has had, for whatever reason, and it still amazes me to this day, but this band has had so much influence on the metal scene from day one, especially when that album came out. And then ‘Black Metal’ — black metal, as a genre, is still alive and kicking today. Extreme metal is around, people say, because of us.

This is what Mantas stated about the reaction of Venom fans to the news of the Keep It True performance and the fact that Dunn and Bray would be performing with some of the best black metal musicians in Japan on November 30, 2025, at Shinjuku Antiknock, a famed music venue in Tokyo.

Every comment I’ve seen so far, 90 percent has been really, really positive. Like, ‘Great. Go for it, guys,’ all this kind of stuff. Then you get the one, ‘Oh, no Cronos, no Venom.’ It’s, like, okay, listen to me right now. You can you imagine the most toxic relationship and the most stressful relationship you’ve ever had in your fucking life, and now go back and invite it back in. And that’s what we tried to do. If everybody knew the real reason I left in 1986, you wouldn’t even fucking look at that guy again. All these people who say that about Cronos and stuff like that, yes, he was a part of the band. I appreciate that. He didn’t write all the fucking early material. He didn’t found the band. He was the last person to join. If you were having problems with your wife and you put it on the fucking Internet, I would never go, ‘Oh, yeah, well, I know what’s going on,’ because you don’t — you don’t know the personalities of the people involved in it. All you see from the outside is a band. I mean, I love KISS. I love Judas Priest. Now there’s fucking problems with K.K. and all the rest of fucking Priest. There’s problems with Ace and fucking Gene and Paul and Peter, but we don’t know what’s really gone on. And it’s, like, yeah, I tell you what, get back in your mom’s basement. Eat your fucking microwave meal and play your video games. This is ridiculous to comment on people’s careers. And that’s the way I feel about it. And all I’m saying is that myself and Abaddon, as the two original members of Venom, we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna celebrate this band and its music. And that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

My take on that is very straightforward. If you’ve got three bands using the word Venom to sell the music… Originally, Venom were a three-piece. Unless you’ve got two members of that three-piece, you can’t call it Venom because it’s Cronos and some other blokes, or it’s Dolan and some other blokes. If you’ve got me and Jeff, you’ve got two-thirds of the original fucking band. That’s as straightforward as you can get. Abbadon

The legendary co-founders of the groundbreaking black metal band Venom, Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and Anthony “Abaddon” Bray, will commemorate the 45th anniversary of the band’s iconic debut album, “Welcome To Hell,” released in 1981, on April 24, 2026, at Tauberfrankenhalle in Lauda-Königshofen, Germany, as part of the Keep It True festival. The “Legions”—the devoted supporters of Mantas and Abaddon—were contacted in August to solicit their assistance in a legal dispute with Cronos. Obtaining credit for their contributions to Venom’s iconic artwork and obtaining their just portion of merchandise profits from albums they co-wrote and performed, such as “Welcome To Hell” (1981), “Black Metal” (1982), “At War With Satan” (1984), and “Possessed” (1985), are two major issues that Mantas and Abaddon have been fighting to resolve since 2023. Mantas and Abaddon, who are now in their 60s, are looking for a just settlement so that their families can profit from Venom’s lasting legacy, which contributed to the development of the black metal subgenre.